For one, it’s pretty obvious that online advertisers will be spending most of their money on placing ads via big online publications such as major social sites (i.e. Facebook), big name online publications (i.e. CNN.com), and the most popular blogs (i.e. Perez Hilton). No matter which way you look at it, a small start up blog is unlikely to get the attention of big advertisers when the big bucks come rolling out of their pockets.

Because of this, what smaller relatively unknown sites should do at this point is to maximize their ad revenue potential by:

1. Building up the page(s) starting NOW – This I already mentioned in my previous post. Still, if you want to make any money it bears saying that you need to build up your pages to get enough traffic to make money from the ads.
2. Choose the right income stream for you – Ads do not always come in the form of ads from direct advertisers. Instead it makes sense to still join affiliate systems and other possible pay-per-click schemes. Figure out which ad service will help you make the most money.

The profit from ads will not go away. If anything, as people shy away from paying for online services, the paid ad model will just increase in popularity. Position yourself early on and learn more about the different ways you can earn from these ads.

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If you plan on joining a blog network, either as a blogger for existing blogs on a network, or to have your blog added as part of the network, you’d better exercise caution so that you end up with a network that will truly help you reach your goals.

Some warning you should watch out for when joining blog networks include:

• Poor content – If the blog network offers poor content, stay away. You don’t want to be associated with anything that will diminish your reputation instead of build it up. Read the actual posts and you can easily see whether they are publishing spun content or are using ghost bloggers that do not even have a good command of the English language. In addition to these, many of the blogs are not even thematic and will write about any topic, which is a sign that they are accepting payment to link to sites, and as we know they will get penalized if caught.
• Ugly pages – Most link farms disguising as blog networks use templates that they do not bother to customize at all.
• No information about the people behind it – You will find that the best blog networks have “real” people behind them. Stay away from blog networks without decent write ups on the authors/bloggers and do not even provide proper contact information.

Image via CrunchyNow

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I’ve been reading old post from one of my favorite bloggers of all time, Sacha Chua, and her post about negative productivity caught my eye. For those following her blog for sometime now, we all know how her productivity will put most to shame. Well, here’s what she has to say about negative productivity and how to handle it.

“The trick to dealing with negative productivity is to catch yourself – ideally, shortly before you mess up, but shortly afterwards is fine too. Do not make things worse in the process of trying to fix things.”

She goes on to say that “it’s better to detect your periods of negative productivity on non-critical operations than to” catch them too late and end up with a bigger mess in your hands.

I know this principle is something that isn’t new. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The same is true for things that decrease our productivity. Catching it early on is something that we all need to do, but if you are to do that you must make it a habit to check yourself regularly for things that might be affecting your productivity and fix what ever needs fixing whenever you can.

Image via M2SYS Blog

InstaBG is the newest and most innovative way to create a more interesting background for your Twitter account. If you personally love Tweeting or you are an internet marketer who uses Twitter for your IM campaigns then it is quite likely that you would be interested in gaining more followers. Having a personalized background on Twitter is like giving your account an edge over your competitors. The more interesting your Twitter page is, the more people will see you as someone worth following. Twitter does not actually allow you to grab and upload your instagram photos, but third party software such as InstaBG does.

I’ve used InstaBG for quite a while now and I am still amazed by what it does and how it helps make my day on a daily basis. InstaBG does not just allow you to grab your instagram photos and upload it into your Twitter page but it can actually change these photos every day automatically. Why is this beneficial? Well, for the reason that people would actually see different images changing as InstaBG changes them and your followers would think that you are always available even if you’re away for a vacation. Plus, it gives you a sense of uniqueness. This is especially beneficial for those who like to take photos and show it to the public.

InstaBG also allows you to customize the size of the photos and how you want them to look like. You can upload several photos at a time. You can customize their background colors, spacing and lay out. InstaBG is the next big thing on Twitter. Make sure that you’re the first one to use it.

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1. It should reflect the topic – Don’t add an image just to make your blog post look pretty. Choose images that reflect the topic and has something to add to the post, and when you can’t think of something suitably specific, go without (just like we’re doing for this post!).
2. Respect copyright laws – The good thing is that there are many images online that you can reuse without trampling on copyright laws such as those licensed under Copyleft. You can also search for stock images from sites like  Depositphotos stock photos, where you will find virtually any kind of image you need for a reasonable fee. However you get your images, just make sure that you give credit where credit is due and that you don’t do something against the law.
3. Think quality – Stay away from grainy images and choose image with good aspect ratios. Vector images are a good idea because they will scale properly whatever size you need them to be.
4. Insert them properly – One of my pet peeves about many fellow professional bloggers is that they don’t bother to properly align the images they insert. It only takes a few seconds to change the alignment and resize the images so that they blend with rest of the post. No matter how good your

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If you find yourself boggled by the many times your instructions or simple messages often seem to go unheeded, maybe it’s time to check your methods of communicating. Ask yourself questions like:

• Are my instructions/messages clear? – Remember what may be clear to you might not be clear to others. So check your messages for any vague wording. Although we must always strive to be concise, sacrifice the message length if you need to explain something in greater detail.
• Did I check for understanding? – Do not assume that someone understood your entire message just because you took great pains to make it understandable. If your message is in the written form, encourage questions by adding the cliched but useful statement, “Feel free to contact me for any clarifications.” If you are communicating with someone verbally, as them outright if they understand what you said. Even better, ask them to repeat the important points of your instructions. You’ll be surprised at just how much different they might have understood your intent.

Taking time to communicate more effectively might feel unnatural to you and may seem a waste of time, but in the end it will help you more than you’ll ever know.

Image via JennyJoyBarrows

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The problem with this scenario is that in most cases the reputable blog networks will only allow those who are already pretty well know in their niche to guest post. Because of this you either have to look for a lesser known blog network that is more lenient in their guest poster criteria, or join huge networks that accepts blog posts from all their members but only chooses to move up a few (Think SEOmoz’s YouMoz section).

Whichever kind of blog network you decide to latch on, what your primary concern should be that the blog network you join is in the niche you specialize in or are interested in. Remember, if your goal is personal brand building it is more than the links that goes with blog networks that you are after. It won’t do you any good to guest post in blogs where your lack of expertise will shine a bad light on you. Not only that, but it’ll be a waste of your time because the audience is not your target audience anyway.

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Fortunately, it is extremely easy to fix your blog so that more people can read it. It’s also worth noting that many people in America speak English as a foreign language. For this reason, translation of a blog becomes important.

Google Translate is the most popular form of translation for a blog. The feature is completely free and can work in one of three ways:

3 Ways You Can Make Your Website Available to the World

1. Add the Website Translator (Drop-Down Menu)

This is a great way to section off your website. For example, if you only want readers to have the option to translate your blog into a different language, you can do that. You can also hand pick which languages you want available. You can select all the languages Google Translate offers, or pick and choose. Once you make all of your decisions on the Google Translate service, a code will be generated for you. Just copy and paste the code into your webpage, and you’re done! Visit the Google Translate homepage for more information.

2. 1-Click Translations for the Toolbar

This is one of my personal favorite ways to translate a webpage. This works great if you have a little bit of extra space on your webpage and know that you only want a few languages available for translation. For example, many businesses know if they have a lot of Spanish speaking readers, so it makes sense to stick with that one language. 1-Click Translations allows the language to be on display (as opposed to a drop down menu), so it works nicely for those who think translation will be a big selling point for their business. The best part: All you have to do is drag the language you’d like found here into your toolbar, and then all readers have to do is click the link.

3. Download Google Toolbar

Although this option does not have as many language choices as the other options, it is extremely beneficial for those who speak English as a second language. Many people want to read a website in English, but get caught on a few words. The Google Toolbar allows readers to put their cursor over a word and instantly see the word in a different language. This service is also free, and can be downloaded here.

Common Concerns with Google Translation

• Comments – Many people get nervous about translation because of the comments. If a blog is read in a different language, then won’t the comments be in that same language? In some cases yes, but in many cases no. You will be surprised to find that although a reader may read something in a different language; they feel comfortable writing a comment in English. If you do get an occasional comment in a different language, it only takes about ten seconds to translate that comment into English. You can use the Google Translate website by copying and pasting the comment in the box on the left. There is a dropdown menu up top where you pick the language of the comment (or have it detected) àEnglish, and then hit “translate” to see what the comment says. You can even type in your own comment and translate it into the reader’s language if you wish!

• Conversion – It is also worth noting that the translation is never perfect. Because languages do not always follow the same format (ex: sentence structure of subject, verb, object), it can be tough to translate perfectly. However, the translations will get the main point of the website across. If you have ever read writing from a non-native speaker, you will sometimes hear mistakes here and there; however the message is clear. Your translations will be very similar in this sense.

Translation of a website is truly one of the easiest ways your company can optimize its website. It doesn’t take up much space on a webpage or involve more than 5 minutes of work, so it’s a great little trick if you’re looking for something to spice up your website. There is no better time than the start of a New Year to try something different, and I think you will find that this is an aspect of website optimization that you’ll enjoy.

Photo Credit: cuesportnews.com

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to employee background checks. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including document software to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.

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If you’re like most people, big name brands will probably come to mind. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll think of some relatively obscure product or company, no matter how often you use their product or service. This isn’t surprising since it’s exactly how branding is supposed to work. The very purpose of branding is, after all, to get people to remember the brand (and the business/products behind it) and remember it in the way they want us to remember. With big name brands putting millions of dollars into branding, it is no wonder that their brands are among the first that pops into mind when thinking of brands at all.

What you should realize though is that branding is for everyone. No matter how small your business might be, it is still important to invest your resources in branding. The same is true for personal brands. As a publisher, you cannot afford to neglect your personal brand. Yes, your reach might never that of the conglomerates, but it will matter for the audience that you reach. Your business may be small now and your name may not be known, but if you have plans of growing your small business, then by not investing in branding now you’re missing out not only in establishing the kind of reputation you want with you present audience, but a way to get out a POSITIVE image about you to your target audience. Not only that, but you’ll also end up having to start from scratch in the future, when you could have started all the hard legwork right now.

So if you think that branding is not for you, think again, because branding is for everybody.

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When it comes to working at home, any parent knows that no matter how well you plan out the day something is bound to happen to disrupt your schedule. It may be something trivial like spilled milk, or something more important like a trip to the emergency room. No matter what it is, the point is that the small things can add up leaving you wondering at the end of the day where all the time went, and having to scramble to finish your work.

If you work at home and have kids, here are some tips that could hopefully help increase your productivity:

Set aside a work space for you – The work space may be an entire room, or just a small corner at the kitchen. The point is that you should have a place where you can put your laptop and the rest of your work stuff that the kids will know are off limits. Having a work station will also help you not just in having a place to dump all your things, but help put you in the zone once you start working.

Establish your kids’ bedtime – This is not only good for your kids, but will also give you a more predictable time of the day when you can catch up on work without any interruptions. The few minutes you spend putting them to bed might will earn you hours of “you time” and plus points in the bonding department.

Pre-post – Every time you have a chance to do work ahead of time, do so. Publish posts ahead of time so that the next time some emergency arises you won’t have to worry to much about unfinished work because you’ve already done them ahead of time!

Photo via Charlotte Fire Dept Credit Union

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